Devu appears before police, grilled for 7 hrs

Marine engineer Devu Chodankar, who was booked for posting anti-Narendra Modi comments on his Facebook page, today appeared before Goa police for the first time and was grilled for over seven hours.

The 33-year-old arrived at Cyber Crime Police Station here at 10.45 AM and was quizzed by investigating officer (IO).

Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Karthik Kashyap, who is supervising the investigation, also interrogated Chodankar in presence of his lawyer, Jatin Naik.

Meanwhile, several social activists who had condemned the case against Chodankar visited the police station and remained there throughout the day.

Emerging from the interrogation, Chodankar said that he had full faith in the law enforcement authorities and his posts were against those who "disregard" Constitution.

"My client had posted the comments on the day when Pramod Muthalik (Shri Ram Sene chief) was inducted in the BJP. He had deleted them immediately after Muthalik was refused (entry) in the party," Chodankar's lawyer Jatin Naik told reporters outside the police station.

Responding to a question, Naik said that Chodankar was not absconding but was on duty at Vishakhatpatnam and had sought time from police to appear before them.

He said that police had seized a lap top and a computer hard disk from Chodankar.

Chodankar was booked by Cyber Crime cell for posting anti-Narendra Modi and anti-BJP posts during run-up to Lok Sabha election.

"If Modi is elected as PM this election, Christians will lose their identity in South Goa. Mark these words. There is an imminent holocaust as it happened in Gujarat though under the garb of cunning government policies of Parrikar," Chodankar's post read.

State chief minister Manohar Parrikar had last week said that police had no intention to arrest Chodankar and indicated that the latter may be let off after inquiry.